The good vibes of confidence and recovery in the mining industry from this past spring’s Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention in Toronto have filtered into northwestern Ontario.

Garry Clark, executive director of the Ontario Prospectors Association (OPA), expects this year to be a busy field season, judging from what he hears and sees walking the floor at the recent Ontario Prospectors Exploration Showcase held in Thunder Bay in early April.

Many companies are ready to do exploration work on their properties if they can raise the financing. Others have money in their treasury and were just waiting for the snow to melt. Clark is expecting to see a mix of new mineral discoveries in 2018 and some stale projects, not worked for years, springing back to life.

The Northwestern Ontario Prospectors Association’s annual three-day exploration event was attended by more than 450 delegates and featured 80 junior mining company and equipment exhibitors at the Valhalla Inn.

Unlike the financiers and investors who roam the floor at PDAC, the showcase attracts a more blue-collar, boots-on-the-ground crowd to Thunder Bay.

The event is a favourite for many equipment suppliers, said Clark. “They say this is the best show they go to because it’s directly to the people that use them.”